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Good morning.
Big day on the show today.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Call will join us at 720 to talk about a legal win for he and his coalition of state governors.
So that will be fun.
We're going to talk of course more about Minneapolis.
We've got and then we'll have some fun to wrap up the show commemorating a classic sitcom that turns 50 with a
in Milwaukee Brewer.
Oh, well, it doesn't get much better than that.
Am I talking about a baseball player or am I talking about someone who makes beer?
You'll have to be here to find out.
We're not telling you everything right at the beginning of the show.
Don't give away all the
I had an event last night, and I went to do that.
And in the interim, so many things keep happening.
And as you can imagine, the story out of Minneapolis
has not should not die off but yesterday we're getting we're getting word that Alex Pretty had a run-in with ICE a week before before he was murdered by an ICE agent on Saturday and it's listen I I know we're not supposed to be sensationalizing things right we're not so we're supposed to stay calm but in the calmest way I
can say this, it's alarming if these reports are true.
Yes.
And before people go, what are you talking about?
Jamie, I'll tell you.
Yeah.
But keep my little alarm warning in your head.
And I think your reaction is spot-on, because federal immigration officers had collected personal information on Minneapolis protesters and agitators, according to these reports, and had even documented details about Alex Pretty before he was shot last Saturday.
Now, it's unclear how he first came to federal authorities' attention.
But about a week earlier, he was actually tackled by agents during a protest and suffered a broken rib, according to sources.
Now, DHS, of course, is saying that they have absolutely no record of that earlier incident.
It's fine.
A memo to agents in Minneapolis directed them to collect images, license plates, IDs, and other information on quote-unquote agitators and protesters, even when no arrest was made.
Now, this information was
has then entered into a, I love this.
This is like, is this
a
Intel Collection Non-Arrest Form to Consolidate Data on Observers and Demonstrators.
Freddie's name was known to federal agents.
It's unclear, though, if the new form was used to log any of his personal information.
It's also unclear whether agents recognized him during the fatal encounter when they wrestled them, seized his gun from his waistband, and then shot him in the back.
DHS says collecting information on people who obstruct or assault officers is standard practice, but they deny maintaining any sort of database of domestic
Where are you keeping your collection if you're collecting information aren't don't you put it somewhere?
Or do you just collect it and look at it and then toss it in the garbage?
So you can't you can't do both you can't collect data and not have a database or You have a database and you're collecting people and it
It harkens back to the old J. Edgar Hoover files.
Anybody who J. Edgar Hoover viewed as an agitator or an enemy of the state, they kept files on.
And that was done more for bigger leaders, Martin Luther King and the Black Panthers and things like that.
But there were also other people on there who spoke out against the government.
This is just a way for DHS and this administration to keep tabs
on people who are exercising their rights.
That's the issue.
They're not doing anything illegal or else they would be arrested.
They're just out there.
And you know what?
They're annoying.
That's the big sin of these protesters.
They are annoying ICE agents.
They're
And I think it's important to remember that Borders are Tom Holman, who has now been sent to Minneapolis.
He met with Walls.
He met with Frye yesterday.
Apparently they had very productive conversations.
He's actually publicly advocated for creating a database, just as we're talking about, for people who've been arrested or interfere with the ICE operations.
I, there's not a part of me that doesn't believe this database doesn't exist somewhere.
And then just to go back to what you first said that they, um, there's no report on the incident with Alex Pretti being tackled.
Imagine if your local police department tackled you and then you went back and, well, there was really no report.
How is that possible?
Right.
None of this seems credible at all.
When all you have to do is start peeling back just a little, you don't even have to go very deep.
If you see a police officer today in your town, ask, hey, if you have to report everything, all your interactions, right?
And they will tell you, yes, we do, for our protection and your protection.
Ever right like you don't because they're all right there It's all right there at the surface and as much as they want us to believe what they tell us They don't do a very good job of covering up their tracks, right?
And there's actually instances of that that we're gonna talk about here in in a few minutes But there was also big news out of Minneapolis yesterday because and again all surrounding the death of Alex Pretty two federal officers fired their weapons
during that fatal shooting of Pretty, according to an initial Department of Homeland Security report.
Now, this report comes from Customs and Border Protection's Office of Professional Responsibility.
They actually have one of those.
Can you believe
during this struggle on the ground, a Border Patrol agent reportedly shouted, he's got a gun before the shots were fired.
About five seconds later, one agent fired and a CBP issued Glock 19 and then another fired a CBP.
B.P.
issued Glock 47.
Now, the report doesn't specify whether both of those officers' bullets struck Pretty.
The officers used their own agency-issued firearms, not Pretty's weapon, according to this initial report.
Video analysis, of course, indicates an officer removed the gun from his waistband.
We're talking Pretty, of course, before the actual
I'm rerunning the video in my head.
When they all stepped away, it sure looked like more than two officers had their guns pointed at and there were reportedly about 10 shots fired.
Yes.
So did these two guys fire all of them and then the rest were just holding their guns for because it's cool to point a gun at somebody?
Again, the credibility of this administration and this agency in particular.
is staggeringly bad.
Well, and when you're dealing with individuals who have very little training and have signed up to wear a face mask and have been paid $50,000 for potentially very little, with very little training, yeah, I think they do just maybe want to point a gun at what they consider to be the bad guys.
I'm not really sure what the, why they're there other than because they've been told they're gonna get paid a lot of money and
there's
they may agree with this administration on how to handle what they consider to be illegal aliens or illegal immigrants or whatever it might be.
I mean, let's be realistic.
We don't know what the intent of these ICE agents necessarily are in all cases either since there has been such a large recruitment effort by this administration.
And it's a conversation, and we've said this so many times, the immigration system in this country is broken.
It needs to be fixed.
We also know that, yes, past administrations have deported more people.
This administration is the only one that is militarizing a private police force against
its
There's the big difference.
Nobody
Nobody in their right mind is saying, no, we should just let everybody in.
And if you're a criminal, that's cool.
Just stay.
Nobody's saying that.
What we're saying is this is unconstitutional.
This is creating fear and chaos.
This is not doing what you set out to do, what you told the American people you were going to do.
This is counter to everything that you stated.
And so now you have decided, and only targeting specific cities, the administration could say this is not a retribution, but come on.
It's only blue cities, only blue states.
Where's the presence in other places?
If it's really about that, everybody, everybody or nobody.
Right, agreed.
That's pending on Alex Pretty.
And there's also, as we know, multiple investigations that are ongoing, including by DHS and Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
And let's be realistic, we're going to probably remember, we're
going to
Wow.
Wow.
There's
There
He had every legal right to carry it wherever in Minnesota he wanted to carry it.
It is an open carry state.
He is licensed and has the permits.
He is completely within every right of his to carry that gun.
It doesn't matter.
And obviously there's limitations on where you can carry a gun, of course.
But outside, in the street,
is not one of those places that is limited.
So they keep banging on this, and we're hearing from the NRA, we're hearing from Minnesota gun groups, we're hearing from all the Second Amendment folks who are now falling over their feet trying to backpedal to say, well, it doesn't mean you can... No, no, no.
Again, this is a... No debate.
It's either legal or it's not legal.
And you wanted it legal.
It's legal.
You don't get to pick and choose.
He never brandished that weapon.
They took it out of his waistband.
It was never out.
Until they tackled him, nobody knew he had a gun.
Right.
Right.
All right, I'm getting worked up.
It's OK.
We'll let
I was going to say hair on fire, but that doesn't apply here.
The president has also said that his administration wants to de-escalate the tensions in Minnesota to the point where they actually had to issue reports last night from the White House deputy chief of staff, Steven Miller.
He actually had to say in a statement that they may not have been
DHS agents may not have been following proper protocol before that
fatal
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You're listening to Civic Media Mornings.
If you're in Eau Claire, you're listening on 93.5 the tap.
Maybe if you're in Oshkosh, Appleton area on WISS.
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My name is Jamie Martenson.
And
Good advice or hear from your neighbors because there have been a lot of unverified rumors that ice has moved in to Milwaukee.
These rumors are unverified and people are getting upset and local leaders and whether it's political or community leaders are not having it anymore.
In fact, Mayor Avalier Johnson's office, a spokesperson for his office had to put out a statement saying, we have no solid indication essentially that ICE is surging into the city.
That spokesperson had to add that similar rumors have surfaced almost weekly.
They've never materialized.
Milwaukee County executive David Crawley also had to put out some sort of statement saying he, he checked with both the Milwaukee police department and the
County Sheriff's Office, neither has heard anything from federal agencies about any sort of large scale enforcement action in the city of Milwaukee.
And of course, local immigration rights, immigrant rights groups that work to basically confirm ICE arrests are also asking people to pause any sort of this unverified information and these rumors online and to realize that
This sort of chatter really just only adds fear into the immigrant community.
And in fact, Vosis de la Frontera, which is an immigrant rights organization, found it back in 1994.
So they've been doing this a
wee bit
They actually had to issue a statement saying that they've heard a lot of these rumors about ice sightings in Milwaukee.
over the past few weeks, many of these rumors they say have already been debunked.
We're asking for your help in stopping the spread of unverified claims, particularly about ICE being spotted at hotels or other locations.
Yeah, and it's tough because we're here, you hear reports out of Minneapolis, and I know I heard reports when the big surge was going on here.
People not leaving their homes, people staying sequestered for,
As long as these agents are in the city and it's not so too It's irresponsible to spread these rumors.
It is there is a level of cruelty to it and there's also this sad Bigger conversation of the fact so many people feel they need this attention from the internet They need those those likes those comments those views and so they will spread lies maybe maybe without even any malice behind it
But they want to be involved so bad.
They need to be heard.
They need to feel important.
So if I start this and people comment on it, look at me.
Aren't I somebody instead of just a regular, everyday nine to five person?
Yeah.
You
know, and these immigrants' rights groups are urging caution about the chatter, but they're also reminding people to stay vigilant and to report any activity that they're seeing so that it can be either verified or debunked in this particular case.
Because all these reports really do is...
Emotions are running high right now, right, among several communities, especially these larger cities that have been targeted.
So all this really does is taps into the emotion and it adds into some of the, I think, fever pitch of all of it and organization.
Sometimes you got to be a little bit more measured with some of these rumors.
And there was actually an instance of one widely shared post on X that claimed ICE had actually booked rooms at a downtown Milwaukee hotel as part of a buildup for the crackdown.
That post received hundreds of thousands of views before it was actually taken down and deleted.
And there was no evidence that actually supported any
Their lawyers are very happy for more billable hours.
That's yeah.
Yeah.
See, can we give this tip every day?
And probably we should give this tip every segment, just in case.
Don't believe everything on the internet.
Really?
Don't believe it.
Well, here's the thing.
That's shocking.
Jamie, you think that, I know, that sounds basic.
The boy aquarium is like, hey, oh man, we know that.
Do we?
No.
No, we don't.
We say we know that.
Everybody claims that they're savvy on the internet, and then I'll get set things for people going, hey, do you see this?
Dude, this is AI.
That person has eight fingers on one hand.
It's not real.
That bear did not drive a car to the circus.
It didn't happen.
I do my own fair amount of digging just to make sure that the...
The facts that I bring are accurate are true because we can all get duped just a little bit.
But let's just be responsible with our voices right now.
I think that's the moral of the story.
If you are going to be posting anything about what's happening with ICE on social media, let's use that as a general rule of thumb for every day.
They're fine.
They're fine.
Now, coming up, we're going to talk a little bit more about the escalation in Minneapolis.
And it looks like not all of the Republicans are on board with Kristi Noem anymore.
So we're going to get into that conversation.
It might be about time.
It's 6.29 right now.
You're listening to Civic Media Mornings.
I'm Jamie Martenson.
Good morning.
If you want to get involved in the program at all today, 855-75-CIVIC.
That's 855-75-248-42.
JB, you started mentioning Stephen Miller and a statement that he made.
We're going to get into... We're going to... Looks like Kristi Noem's time may be up, but let's go back because you wanted to share more of that statement because Stephen Miller, who is best...
Compared to Nosferatu as he sits in his corner just sharpening his fangs and he could be could be one of the most evil men on the planet if not
I'd like to meet his runners up.
Let's be real, there's been rumors that he pulls a lot of strings and has a lot of influence in this particular administration.
And I think this is important context based on the statement that came out last night as we talk about these calls for Kristi Noem to step down and how Republicans are starting to view this.
So there were reports last night that came out, oh, right around 730 or so, that the language claiming Alex Pretty
wanted to massacre federal agents wasn't actually spontaneous, that that was dictated to Kristi Noem and DHS by Stephen Miller, who is
the White
Now that led Miller to releasing an official statement last night saying that officials are evaluating why customs and border protection agents in Minneapolis may not have been following proper protocol before the fatal shooting of Alex Pretty.
This is the statement, quote.
Miller says, the White House provided clear guidance to DHS that the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors.
The statement goes on to say, we are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol.
Change of the story.
This is the finger pointing and covering your butt.
phase of the administration where everybody now realizes that they did the one thing that is unforgivable in the eyes of the president, they made him look bad.
And so now there's heads are going to roll.
And I don't know when, but it seems to me, we know that there's really nothing that the president can do that gets his head rolling because he's right, you know, he's done all those things and nothing happens.
But
He's he is not above getting rid of people in his cabinet not above getting rid of people on his staff and now Republicans are starting to fracture from the party line and they're calling for Kristi Noem
They're also starting to be skeptical of
And here we are.
So Senators Tom Tillis and let's
Let's remember that Tom Tillis is not seeking reelection.
So he can be a little bit more vocal and stand up a little bit more to this administration.
He, of course, is from North Carolina.
You have Lisa Murkowski from Alaska.
They're the first Republicans to call for Kristi Noem to resign after the killing of Alex Pretty.
And also, let's not forget, Renee Good just earlier, a couple of weeks before.
Now, Tillis says that he has absolutely no confidence in Noem.
He called her
actions amateurish and unacceptable.
And he actually got into a press scrum last night.
And, uh, as he was walking to his car and his comments to me were unbelievable for an elected official talking about somebody that this, this party voted to put into a
So let's go to cut two, please.
This is Tillis.
That was not wrong.
No, it's not wrong and I will be honest That was some of the least harsh language that he used on his way to the car It was it was actually a moment where I was a little taken aback from a sitting Republican
because of the fact that they have protected this administration so much to hear somebody be that vocal against somebody in the cabinet was actually a little shocking to me anyway who tends to go through a lot of this audio and hear a lot
Doesn't it seem like it has to at some point weigh on some of these people where they will get to the point
whether Tillis is up for reelection or not, he's still got to finish out his term.
They have to, as a human being, just reach the point of, this is dumb.
And then if you are a Republican who really believed that, you know, that was one of the big platforms, the immigration thing, border security.
And then they put somebody in charge of it who has no idea.
It's been a complete disaster.
the last year if you can even if you're not running again you still want your party in charge and if you see it deteriorating because of actions by you know a cosplaying goofball you got to say something
which has
bismally bad, which Tillis, if you have a chance to search out his comments, he also refers to.
He basically says what she's been able to do or not done in disaster relief in her short tenure has been a complete and total disaster for a majority of this country.
And again, it's pretty stunning
Talk to anybody who was involved in all the floods.
Talk to the people in Texas who lost family members and lost children because of the floods.
You know you pick pick your poison talk of blizzards wildfires all of this because you know They well the wildfires if they just cleaned up that would have been I know that was the president saying that but Then she she echoes
she's an empty vessel She says what they tell her to say her only strength is picking out costumes to wear that go with the event that is she she is I mean, I
Jamie, we're both old enough to remember when secretaries of agencies did not dress up.
They weren't on TV every day.
We didn't see them on commercials at night.
It's like, stop.
Stop the cult of personality and get qualified adults in these jobs because these jobs are important.
I do.
vividly in fact.
It's interesting to me to see, and I even look at somebody like speaker John Thune, also a South Dakotan who I've watched rise through the ranks of politics.
These are not the same people they were.
We might not have ever agreed politically with ideology, but they were measured human beings who actually had positions and they had thoughts, their own thoughts.
They maybe had
tweets right there was a lot of me tweets I think there's been a lot of threats towards my take on it would be the the threats towards the I mean they've done it outwardly they've threatened own members of their party on in on true social posts when they've stood at the podium they've told them to make the right choices so I think that's when we started to
when I personally started seeing the change in some people that, again, I would have never maybe, you know, voted for ideally because of, because of what we believed was very different, but I found them to be measured people, like actual humans, right?
Maybe we just didn't philosophically align.
We do,
to
Hey, good, good morning, guys.
For me, none of this matters.
Any of the Republicans speaking out or Stephen Miller with this bogus letter he sent out, it doesn't matter if we don't get the evidence from Renee Good's murder, and it doesn't matter if no one is prosecuted and the killing of Alex.
They can do all the talking they want to.
until they hand over all the information for the state of Minnesota to investigate and bring these people to justice that outright killed other humans in plain sight.
They can say everything they want to say.
It's all about prosecuting the people that
that outright killed someone.
You know, they can, oh, well, this is not right.
And by this, well, they're saying all of that.
As they're saying it, they're making sure that they keep all the evidence away from the state of Minnesota officials to investigate this.
Well, that's changing a little now.
That is changing the part of the Alex Pretty discussions between
Governor Walz and Mayor Fry and the administration is that Minnesota is handling this investigation.
And they're going to collect the data.
And they're the ones who prosecuted the... Oh, man, I just blanked.
I want to say Rodney King, and that's not it.
Who am I thinking of?
George Floyd.
George Floyd.
Wow.
No, they prosecuted and got the conviction for the George Floyd case.
I have confidence in Minnesota's criminal investigations and they are going to get the evidence and I think they will continue the fight to get it for Renee Good's case as well, despite the best efforts of DHS to cover things up.
Michelle texting in from listening on WMDX this morning saying she, as in Kristi Noem, shot and killed her puppy, not sure if she was ever a good human.
I don't know if she was ever a good human.
She was definitely not to the degree, in my experience, watching her rise that she is now.
I don't disagree with Michelle.
I will say that she seemed at the time like a more measured person that you could actually negotiate with, have a conversation with.
I'll never try to know what's going on in somebody's header in their own home, but she seemed like a politician that might stay more moderate, at least early on in her rise.
Can I, as a former South Dakotan, can I ask you to clarify, maybe you don't know this and we, and that's why I'm asking a question.
I'm not making a statement.
There's, I've seen a lot of.
things online that the Native American reservations have banned her while she was governor from coming on their land.
Is that true?
that?
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query?
I honestly have no idea what just happened there.
That was really weird.
guys figure that out.
can't do
Okay.
Tiffany's outside throwing things at the window.
Allegedly.
So we, Tom Tiffany had said that he did not see any of the videos of Alex Purdy's murder because they were too grainy.
And I theorized yesterday that
Perhaps this was a way to ingratiate himself into the president's goodwill.
You know, he's got a campaign coming up.
Well, guess what, Jamie?
I'm not as dumb as I look.
Yeah she says that she will vote against funding the Department of Homeland Security unless major accountability measures are added which we all know the
Partial shutdown could happen if they can't get any sort of bill passed Friday night well into Saturday morning I guess it'd be 12 o 1 a.m.
Is when that shutdown
would
Yeah, well, here's the thing.
As a guy who made his living for
two decades as a comedian.
I get very upset when people use the, it was just a joke defense.
Now you and Frank had a very, I'm not familiar with Paul Allen.
I know he was a long time Minnesota Vikings radio announcer.
You guys had very strong feelings about him.
I know nothing about him.
All I know is that he put his foot in his mouth.
He made some comments.
Now he's in trouble and he's using the I was just kidding
If you don't know who Paul Allen is, he is a longtime Minnesota Vikings radio announcer.
And he made a bit of a joke, or at least that's what he's calling it, on air about paid protesters in Minnesota, referencing, of course, the conspiracy theories that demonstrators are funded by outside groups.
You've never been paid.
Right?
I've never, nobody, I really wish those checks would start coming in the mail someday.
Now, this is what he said.
In conditions like this, do paid protesters get hazard pay?
This was during his radio show called the Paul Allen Show.
And then he later made some, then those remarks then basically, as you can imagine, got a little backlash.
Viking's Jumbotron image connected to the protests also went viral, and tensing.
intensifying this criticism on social media.
Now, he has publicly apologized, calling his comments insensitive and poorly timed.
If you don't even think about Paul Allen to me, that's pretty much his entire career,
insensitive and poorly
and
Now, Alan has announced that he's taking a, I love this temporary leave from the program saying, quote, my best was lacking Friday.
And for that, I am sorry.
Now, I can pretty much imagine that just knowing what I do about Paul Allen, I don't think he probably did this because he wanted to.
I
on his own show.
So for now, they have some sort of longtime contributor in the chair.
But you know, he's one of those guys that you either love him or you hate him.
And I know a lot of Vikings fans who love their team.
They're passionate.
They don't even like Paul Allen.
They're like, he's
You're going to have people love you or hate you.
Sure.
Part of the deal is, you know, in that medium, it's, and in this medium too, it's all about how much
controversy you can generate with what you say.
The problem I have with this is the people who would argue, well, doesn't he have a right to say that?
Yes, he has a right to say it.
He did say it.
His company also has a right to not put up with it.
Yeah, there are no there's no no right that says there are no consequences for your free speech.
Right.
You can say those things.
And I'll be honest.
I read what he said, and I thought, now I could have said that here, and everybody listening would have known it was a joke.
Because of, you've heard me say things that are a little push in the line, but it's obvious I'm kidding.
He was not kidding.
to make sure that you understand these are our opinions.
But we also have a responsibility that we take greatly here at Civic Media.
So when we're sitting in this chair, we try to be responsible with our words and what we're doing.
It is 6.59 right now.
You are listening to Civic Media Mornings.
My name is Jamie Martenson.
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